Ah, the Crone! I always felt well grounded when I'd pull that particular card using the Motherpeace deck.

Now about this bleeding issue!

Being kinda premenopausal about it myaelf, I've been using a Diva Cup for the last few years --- which has been an absolute GodSend! It takes anything you'll throw at it (as things differ after a fashion, as some of us have found out), wipes clean and easy with virtually no water (leaving you spotless - not to mention odourless - as well), and has the good grace to just "feel a little heavy" to let you know it might be time to empty it out. (which I'd probably just plan to do in my tent as often as possible, using an appropriate container -- I may be being a bit naiive here). The best part is there's never any garbage to deal with except clean, odourless blood.

One part of my burgin soul wonders if this isn't the answer out there on the playa. The other part recoils at the thought of certain playa crotch.

I arrived on the playa at the end of my cycle this year and I use a Divacup (godsend!). I simply emptied it into the porto's. After emptying I would clean it with a baby wipe and then pack out the baby wipe in a ziplock to my trash bag at camp. When I stopped bleeding I gave it an extra wipe and put away in it's little bag. When I got home I washed it with soap and water. For me this was a lot easier than carting around tampons and dealing with all that extra trash out there.

I seem to be really lucky and hit my cycle whenever I go camping or on a trip. Lucky me.

delle wrote:Thanks for the links Artemis. Strangely, when I used the search engine, nothing showed up. Even tho I'd searched for posts and not topics.

You're welcome. The search feature on eplaya isn't the greatest. Part of how I was able to find those threads as I knew they existed, having read them before and thus kinda knew what I was looking for....I never search by posts/not topics. But I tried searching 'diva' that way just now, and although the Red Tent thread didn't get captured, the other one did. Better yet searching for "menstruat*" culls a lot more relevant posts, including this one. I read every single post on that thread before my first burn and it made the world of difference. I highly recommend checking it out.

delle wrote:The last time I used tampons was as a necklace (with pads spread in my breast pocket as a kerchief) at an office party where we were asked to show up in Period Costume.

Sadly (yet again, dammit) nobody got it.

Seems kind of sad to me now how it was the tampons that got ditched rather than the humourless folk. Sigh.

Delle- If you make sure all the boxes below the place where you type are unchecked, your quotes/code etc. will work. You can also make this change in your profile so that they'll always work. For some reason the default selection is to "disable" all of them.

Also the "preview" button will let you see what your post looks like, which can help identify a missed tag on the code.

Artemis wrote:Also the "preview" button will let you see what your post looks like, which can help identify a missed tag on the code.

Ah. The concept of a mirror so one can do a quick booger-check before heading out to face the world. Brilliant!

Fully realizing this might not be the venue to ask* -- but forging ahead nonethless, given the presence of the savvy-and-willing-to-share -- I wonder if my problems run a bit further up the line. Should I be starting my post by clicking on the "quote" button of the post I want to have appear in mine? Keeping intact the "quote and unquotes" (clearly visible in my botched version up there). If this is the case, how in the world are you all achieving multiple, separate, quotes in a single post??? Something to do with that little "Quote" button above the composition window?

*(feel free to direct me to the puter-tech hall... I haven't discovered the door that leads there yet.)

Worry is a misuse of imagination“She hadblue skin, And so didhe. He kept it hid And so did she.They searched for blueTheir whole life through, Then passed right by- And never knew.” Shel Silverstein

delle wrote:If this is the case, how in the world are you all achieving multiple, separate, quotes in a single post??? Something to do with that little "Quote" button above the composition window?

*(feel free to direct me to the puter-tech hall... I haven't discovered the door that leads there yet.)

Yes, I usually use the "quote" to reply to someone's post, but you don't have to. If you use that feature it'll show who typed the thing to which you're replying.

If you don't do that and instead use the button above the place where you type, highlight the sentence you want to quote and then click the button. It'll put both the code that opens and closes the quote that way. You can also add in the code '="X"' to show that X is the one you're quoting...

If you're ever curious how someone did what they did, if you click the "quote" button you can see their code when it quotes them in the box you type.

Artemis wrote:If you're ever curious how someone did what they did, if you click the "quote" button you can see their code when it quotes them in the box you type.

Whoohooo!!! '="X"' Ray Glasses WITHOUT that pesky Nerd Look.

(tho I should really get over that one. Wore my glasses in here for the first time yesterday and realized that a certain favorite avitar in here said "Pound it!" rather than the wayyyyyyyyy sexier "Found it!" that had made me giggle every time I'd seen it.)

Thanks again for the insight!!!

Worry is a misuse of imagination“She hadblue skin, And so didhe. He kept it hid And so did she.They searched for blueTheir whole life through, Then passed right by- And never knew.” Shel Silverstein

just skip your week off and take the pill throughout. if your not on the pill start two months before.
BEWARE: everytime i do this in the sake of travelling/camping i am a bit of an emotional mess a couple weeks after i was supposed to have my period, but its still wayyyy better than having to pack tampons.

manydaze84 wrote:just skip your week off and take the pill throughout. if your not on the pill start two months before. BEWARE: everytime i do this in the sake of travelling/camping i am a bit of an emotional mess a couple weeks after i was supposed to have my period, but its still wayyyy better than having to pack tampons.

Well, I completely disagree with this. I'd rather have the practical pain in the assery than all the fucked shit bcp can and would do to my hormones, emotions, etc. Assuming it'd even work in the first place and keep me period-free.

manydaze84 wrote:just skip your week off and take the pill throughout. if your not on the pill start two months before. BEWARE: everytime i do this in the sake of travelling/camping i am a bit of an emotional mess a couple weeks after i was supposed to have my period, but its still wayyyy better than having to pack tampons.

Well, I completely disagree with this. I'd rather have the practical pain in the assery than all the fucked shit bcp can and would do to my hormones, emotions, etc. Assuming it'd even work in the first place and keep me period-free.

But then, I've never taken BC in my life.

Actually, there was never any scientific reason for birth control pills to be taken in short cycles with menstrual periods in between; they were originally proposed that way for FDA approval just as a marketing strategy, to make them seem more "natural." They work in your body by mimicking pregnancy, fooling your ovaries into not releasing eggs, so taking them for months at a time is more natural than the short bursts that are currently sold. In fact they are often prescribed to be taken for months straight as a treatment for endometriosis, and have proven to be safe and effective. Thats how I found out about this better way to take them. In fact, I took them that way for more than 10 years, to keep my endometriosis under control, and when I stopped the pills, I got pregnant within 2 months. For the first time. At age 32.

The side effects vary from person to person of course, but, real pregnancy and real PMS were much more troublesome emotionally for me than anything I experienced while on the pill. YMMV. But it's pretty clear that pausing the pills for menstrual periods is not really necessary.

%^^&** i can NOT figure out to use the fancy quote buttons so im sorry...

CFM - yeah fair enough but to be honest the mental stress about having to plan my day around freaking call of nature, i find to be worse. id take the bcp 365 days a year if i thought it wouldnt give me a stroke!
also there is NO WAY id consider the use of some reusable item in a desert sand storm environment, just sayin'! i'd strangle baby seals to death to make fur seat covers for my HUMMER before i did that.

mydearfriend - wow ! that just goes to show you though.....it effects everyone differently.

I'm blaming a newfound Extremely Badly Timed regularity on the rejuvenating properties of preparing for TTITD, since the regularity started just about when I joined eplaya. That it had to be "That Week" is just plain unfortunate.

Worry is a misuse of imagination“She hadblue skin, And so didhe. He kept it hid And so did she.They searched for blueTheir whole life through, Then passed right by- And never knew.” Shel Silverstein